Two recent shots for C&C
michswiss
Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 2,235 Major grins
I'm guessing that these are almost's or misses. But like I mentioned in a previous post, I'm experimenting a little with some new ideas. Comments appreciated.
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Got bored with digital and went back to film.
I'm guessing you're a Labrador Retriever.
I'm very aware of the technical issues with both shots and the "almost's" of the subjects positions. I'm trying to shoot edges and subject separation keeping to colour as much as possible. I guess I'm asking more about the concept of this approach. It almost certainly requires quick manual focus (practicing), DOF control (improving) and exposure (pretty good at it). But it's a bear because everything of interest is at the edges and most of the time I can't set then recompose. No time. What's interesting is I'm basically turning off every aspect of automation in my camera to get the shots I want.
No, but I love labs, so I'm sure their tendencies rub off.
Yeah, I've gradually been doing that too, though as much out of preference as of real need. I find that automation (and zoom lenses) discourage the photographer from understanding what's really going on and developing real control of the craft. And as you say, the automation doesn't always make it easer to get the shot you want. Auto-focus, in particular, is convenient if you have ONE thing you want to focus on. As soon as you have two at different distances with nothing between them, AF has nothing to focus on. With manual focus and a split prism focus screen, this is pretty easy to deal with, but the focusing screens in AF cameras usually lack split prisms, so you have to rely on electronic focus confirmation, which is far less helpful. (There are third-party screens with split prisms, but I haven't tried them; I hear they can cause problems with metering.) I've mostly abandoned auto-focus at this point except for sports, and in fact I've been spending a lot of time lately with a vintage late-1970s film camera that doesn't even have auto-focus capability (Nikon FE -- a real pleasure to shoot).
I'm still struggling with exposure control. Even when setting shutter speed manually, I find that I rely on the camera's meter for an initial estimate and then try to figure out (guess) how far wrong it's going to be, and in which direction. One thing I've experimented with is putting my 5D Mark II into spot-metering mode and looking at specific points of interest, but that's too slow a process for "in the moment" street photography. The FE, unfortunately, has only center-weighted metering.
Got bored with digital and went back to film.
Sounds really hard to me, but certainly worth exploring. I have one suggestion: if you set your lens manually to the hyperfocal distance of the nearest plane you expect the action to be in, you don't have to worry about focus and can concentrate on composition, which I think is the key to getting shots like this to work. Try not to set the aperture too small so as to avoid diffraction degradation--I believe that will be more of a problem at the edges, so you ought to take it into account. Just in case you haven't seen it, here's a link to DOFMaster, a handy hyperfocal distance calculator.
Disclaimer: this is just theoretical musing on my part--I haven't actually tried shooting this way myself so I'm not sure how practical it really is. I suppose the downside is that the background will be in sharper focus than you may want. You can usually fix that in post if you like. If you try it, please let us know how well it works.
This is exactly one of the things I'm working on: Trying to estimate then preset to the focal plane I'm likely to need and working a little more stopped down to increase DOF. I'm hoping this is going to help me get a few more images that I keep seeing but seldom capture successfully. I figure it will also help me with other types of photography and formats.
I'm doing this as well to avoid focus issues with aging eyes and a faded patch on my M3. f/8 is the usual recommended aperture for this, at least on the RF sites.
... I'm still peeling potatoes.
patti hinton photography
Re #1 - I don't mind cropped heads in street photography, but I can see that, for this photo, maybe it doesn't work. I had a crazy thought, though I don't think there is enough space on the edges to make it work. I'm thinking that it would be a rather interesting picture if one could crop out the entire head of the man on the left. Put that together with the expression on the other man's face .... It would certainly support the separation theme.
I do like the idea of #2 but have to agree that the position of the man could be better.
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Really agree that would make a much stronger image for #1. Just scrolling to where it sits above the cops head really works for me
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#2, near miss. #1 I like, though it could do with a bit more contrast. I like the cop looking right at you, btw - it's creepy, and works well with the position of the wrists of the guy on the left....is he waiting for cuffs?
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